Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-044 (Theology)

Living Words of the New Testament, by Rev Dr Leon Morris

REDEMPTION

When people went to war in the ancient world the victors in battle often captured prisoners. Sometimes they allowed these prisoners to be released if the home folk paid a sufficient price. This process was called ‘redemption’ and the price was called a ‘ransom’.

The word ‘redemption’ came to be applied to other forms of release such as the setting free of a slave. An interesting extension of the meaning was for setting free a person under a sentence of death (read of this in Exod. 21:28-30). A poor person might sell himself into slavery if the need of money was very urgent, and when this happened a member of the family might redeem him (see Lev. 25:47- 49). The word came to be used of all sorts of transactions in which one family member helped another; thus Boaz was said to ‘redeem’ when he bought the right to marry Ruth (see Ruth 4:1-12).

The New Testament writers found this a very useful way of describing what Jesus did in saving us. They saw sinners as slaves to sin (as Jesus taught, Jn. 8:34. see also Rom. 7:14. Tit. 3:3). It is not only that we do in fact sin now and then; we are ‘slaves’ of sin so that there is not one of us who is free and is able to live without ever sinning (Rom. 3:23).

But when Jesus died on the cross he paid the price that set us free. He said that he came to give his life as a ransom (Mk. 10:45). Paul tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse that follows our failure to keep God’s law (Gal. 3:13; for the curse see Dt.21:23). We have redemption through Christ’s blood (Eph. 1:7). Our redemption is ‘eternal’ (Heb. 9:12) which reminds us not only of the cost but of the permanence of our salvation.

None of the New Testament writers ever asks or answers the question ‘To whom was the ransom paid?’ and we do well not to look for an answer. Redemption is a picture word which brings out vividly the great cost of our salvation and the wonderful liberty into which we are brought. But it is a vivid illustration and not an exact description. We cannot press every detail.

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Rev Dr Leon Morris is an internationally recognised New Testament scholar, theologian and author, from Melbourne Australia.

This feature series of ‘Living Words of the New Testament’ appeared in ‘Daily Notes’, published by Scripture Union.